


Lovesick

by esthropp



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Childhood Sweethearts, F/M, Gen, Inspired By My Own Tweet, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-16 11:13:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18093239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esthropp/pseuds/esthropp
Summary: The one where Spencer has a crush.





	Lovesick

**Author's Note:**

> This was requested by some mutuals after I tweeted this https://twitter.com/emprentissreid/status/1105573940578136064. This is my interpretation of my own tweet, I suppose.

It’s a stupidly hot day that day, which was the only reason they were at the ice cream shop. Well, that and because the guys were all physically incapable of telling Penelope and JJ no. Especially Hotch. No matter how much of a stoic he pretended to be. Spencer was personally, secretly delighted that they’d gone because he loved ice cream and he hated sweating. Plus, this ice cream shop was the only one that sold pumpkin flavored ice cream all year round.

“Pumpkin, Spence? Really?” JJ was skeptical about the bright orange blob in Spencer’s disposable bowl.

“It’s good,” he insisted. “Especially with almonds.”

“I think we’ll take your word for it,” Derek told him, dipping into his own bright, multicolored Superman flavor.

“Hey, have any of you guy’s started the paper for Walsh’s class?” Penelope inquired.

“I finished it,” Hotch answered. Spencer, whose mouth was full, pointed at himself to indicated that he’d also finished the assignment.

“Seriously?” She whined. “I don’t know why I’m surprised.”

“I can help you with it if you want,” Hotch offered.

“Thank you. I just need help narrowing down a topic.”

“Sure. We’ll go over it later if you want.”

Penelope beamed. “You’re a godsend, Aaron Hotchner.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far,” an amused voice came from behind the group’s table.

“Emily!” JJ enthused as the older girl came and stood by their table.

Spencer choked and sputtered when she came into view.

Emily Prentiss was Hotch’s next door neighbor and a few years older than them. She was going to be a junior and she went to _Yale_ and she’d been away all summer doing and internship. And she was the prettiest, funniest, smartest girl ever, according to Spencer, and he’d had a crush on her since the beginning of time, probably.

“Hey! Emily! Hi, hello!”

“Hi, hello to you, too, Spencer!” She cracked a small smile at him, and then reached over to rub his back. “Are you okay?”

Spencer twitched a little at the touch, but tried to play it off as a cough. “Yeah. Yeah, no, I’m fine, I’m good, Emily. How are you? How’s Yale?”

The rest of the table all shared amused looks. He was so hopeless.

“I’m doing great. Yale’s Yale so, that’s that. How’s senior year been so far?”

“Brutal,” Penelope intoned.

“But Spence is gonna be valedictorian,” JJ piped up, earning an annoyed look from Spencer.

“It’s too early to know that,” he remarked.

“You probably will be though. You’ve got the highest grades in the whole school and you’re already taking college courses and you’re the president of three prominent clubs,” Hotch pointed out.

Emily’s eyebrows shot up as she looked down at Spencer. “Wow, Spencer. I always knew you were a genius, but that’s impressive. I’m really proud of you.”

Spencer gaped. “You‒ you’re proud of me? Really?”

“Of course, I am.” God, her eyes were doing that soft, melty thing they did when she was being really earnest and sincere about something.

“Well,” Spencer breathed, trying to ignore the way his whole entire body felt watery and hot all of the sudden. “That’s… yeah. I mean, good and thanks, you know, for‒ uh, that. Thank you, Emily.”

There was a beat of silence that he took to revel in his embarrassing display before finally, Derek came to the rescue.

“So, Prentiss, you wanna join us for a scoop?”

“Oh, I’d love to, but I can’t.” Spencer’s heart plunked to the bottom of his gut. “I have a few errands I still need to run. I only stopped in here to grab a water and get some relief from sweating my tits off.”

And of fucking course, Spencer’s body decided he just had to look, but luckily his brain took over halfway through the looking process and he ended up staring at the glass covering the desserts display, which was perfectly level with Emily’s breasts. He would _not_ be a gross jerk just because he was attracted to her. He was a gentleman.

“Oh, poo,” Penelope frowned, genuinely bummed Emily couldn’t join them. “It was nice seeing you though.”

“It was nice seeing all of you guys, too.” She sounded like she was smiling. “Hey.” Spencer felt a nudge against his shoulder and looked up at her. At her face, thank you very much. She was smiling at him like he was special. It hurt. “You definitely don’t need it, but good luck. I cannot wait to see what you get up to after high school.”

“Why?” He croaked because he has never had the ability to speak normally around this girl. He’s come to accept it, no matter how fucking obnoxious it is.

Her smile lit up a notch and his breath caught a little. “Are you kidding? I’ve known since you were like seven that you’re gonna be someone extraordinary. I’m excited to see what you do.” She held his gaze for a long beat before looking away. “Anyway, you guys have a great rest of your day. Bye.”

The rest of the table echoed a chorus of farewells as she walked away, but Spencer just watched her go.

“Dude!”

The exclamation from Derek made him turn back around. “What?”

“Go after her!” JJ half yelled.

“What? Why?”

“So you can ask her out, duh.”

He started shaking his head before the sentence was fully finished. “No. I can’t do that. It wouldn’t accomplish anything.”

“You’ll never know unless you do it,” Hotch said, which honestly boggled Spencer’s mind.

“You really think I should go ask her out?” He couldn’t believe it.

“I think, in this situation, you have nothing to lose by at least letting your feelings be known,” Hotch clarified.

“Pretty Boy, go, now! She’s getting in her car!” Derek was looking out the window.

“Fine! Fine!”

He barely made it to Emily’s car in time before she started pulling off. He felt like a fucking idiot waving his arms around trying to get her attention, but it worked, so whatever. She rolled her window down as he came to stand by the driver’s side window.

“What’s up?” She wondered.

“Uh, well…” he hadn’t actually ever thought of what he might say to her in this scenario, which was absolutely ridiculous because his brain was perfectly capable of conjuring up images of what they’d be like when they got together, but the actual getting together part? Never once considered it. Ridiculous. “Hypothetically speaking, if one, who is still in high school but will be at least a sophomore in college by the time one graduates due to all the dual credit courses one is taking, were to express an interest in you, hypothetically, what do you think your response would be?”

Emily stared at him unblinking for an uncomfortable amount of time before she spoke. “Hypothetically, what kind of interest in me would one be expressing?”

God, he felt like he was starting to sweat. “Hypothetically, the interest would be of a romantic nature.”

She considered that. “Well then, hypothetically, I would say that one—” she raised a supercilious eyebrow at him and he flushed. “—is an extremely impressive individual and that one shouldn’t take those accomplishments lightly. And hypothetically, one’s romantic interest in me is something I wouldn’t be opposed to exploring if the situation were different.”

“You—” he couldn’t even get it out, his heart was beating like a goddamn racehorse and his blood was whooshing around in his ears. He couldn’t quite comprehend what she’d just told him. “You would‒ I mean, one day you think we could…?”

“Maybe.” Though she looked a little discomfited as she said it. “But Spencer, that doesn’t mean I want you to wait for me or anything.”

“Emily, I’ve been waiting for you since I was seven,” he blurted.

Her face slipped into blankness and if he hadn’t known her for so long, it would have had him running for the hills.

“What I mean is,” because shit, that was a heavy fucking confession and even he could recognize that it wasn’t entirely fair for him to say. “You really don’t need to worry about me waiting or pining or whatever. I’ve been doing it a long time and I’m fine. My life is good. I don’t want you to feel… I don’t know, weird about any of this. I just… wanted you to know where I stand, I guess. Even if you’re not standing on the field with me.”

Emily was quiet for a few seconds, staring down at her bitten down fingernails and he wasn’t sure if that was the end of that or if she was just gearing up to politely tell him to fuck off. He’d seen her do before to a lot of people.

“I’m on the field, Spencer.”

He wheezed. “You are?”

She was still looking down at her nails, but he watched her lips twitch into a hesitant smile. “Yeah. But this just isn’t an option right now. You understand that, right?”

He probably looked certifiable, he was smiling so wide. “Yeah, yeah, of course. But as I stated before, I can wait. Happily.”

“This isn’t a guarantee that anything will happen, you know,” she warned him.

“It’s not, but it is hope and that’s all I need for now,” he explained.

She shook her head at him, smiling like she was in shock. “You really are something else.”

“Well, you always knew I’d be someone extraordinary. I’m counting this as my first extraordinary act.” He was really fucking over the moon, on cloud nine, not ever coming the fuck down ecstatic right now.

“Oh, my god,” she laughed. “Go back inside. I gotta go.”

He attempted to temper his smile even a little. “Bye, Emily. It was really, really good seeing you.”

Miraculously, a pretty pink blush found its way to her cheeks. “Bye, Spencer.” With that, she rolled up her window and drove off.

He watched her car until it disappeared down the street and then, he made his way back inside the ice cream shop. His friends immediately accosted him, demanding to know what happen.

He just sat back in his seat with that same goofy ass grin on his face. “We’re getting married.”

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you like it, please.


End file.
